It’s Their Job: Monica Nuckols

April 14, 2008

Name: Monica Nuckols

Job: Second grade teacher at James Elementary

Background: Nuckols has been teaching in the Portales Schools for 15 years, before teaching at James Elementary she taught at Valencia as a Title I reading and math teacher. She received her bachelor’s degree at Eastern New Mexico University in Education with an endorsement of language arts after attending Texas Tech and New Mexico State University.

Q. What is a typical day on the job like for you?A. It starts at 7:30 a.m. by getting ready for the day and setting up for breakfast. There’s no typical day and I try to do a lot of reading with the kid’s throughout the day.

Q. Why did you choose this job?A. I like seeing the light bulb come on for a student, I love kids. I love having a child get excited about reading.

Q. What type of training, if any, do you need for your job?A. I can teach kindergarten through high school, I am a level two teacher (attained through college courses and hands-on classroom experience) my degree emphasis is in language arts. I attend 20 hours or more of workshops a year, called professional development hours. ENMU students have a classroom at our school where they can get hands-on experience to be a teacher someday.

Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?A. Seeing the kids every day and teaching them something new. I love coming to school.